Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,79

wrapped itself around him. It was fear for what he suspected Bryson was sick with.

“Hi, buddy,” Ryker said as he went to the edge of the bed.

Taking in Bryson’s fragile appearance, his heart pounded hard as he glimpsed the rash on the one arm he could see. He used the thermometer he found on the nightstand, registering the temperature when it appeared in the digital display.

“When did you last give him something for the fever?” he asked, glancing up and seeing the fear he felt inside reflected on Sophia’s face. He hoped he was doing a better job at hiding his fear than she was.

She answered that question and every other one he put to her without asking why he was asking them.

Unfortunately, none of her answers made him feel any better about what he suspected. It didn’t make any sense, though, because what he suspected Bryson had wasn’t all that common anymore. Regardless, his suspicions meant that he needed to get the little boy to the hospital.

“Sophia, I think we need to take Bryson to the ER.”

Her eyes went wide, and more tears spilled out. “The ER?”

He decided not to scare her with the worst-case scenario that was playing through his mind. “Between his fever and vomiting, I think the ER is the best place for him. They’ll have medicine to help with both those things, plus he’s probably dehydrated because he can’t keep anything down.”

“Okay. Okay.” She took a deep breath as she slid off the bed. “I’ll take him.”

Ryker touched her arm as she looked frantically around the room as if trying to figure out what she needed to do first. “I’ll take you both.”

“You will?” The relief on her face was immediate and immense. “You’ll go with us?”

“Yes. Now let’s get him ready to go.”

While Sophia gathered up her things, Ryker put the items he’d gotten at the store into the fridge and the freezer.

Returning to the bedroom, he picked Bryson up in his arms, hating how frail he felt and how out of it he seemed.

Sophia picked up a bowl and towel along with her purse, then led the way out of the house, pausing for only a moment to lock the door.

“We’d better take your car,” Ryker said. “I don’t have a car seat.”

She opened the door of the car so that he could put Bryson into his seat. When he held out his hand for the car keys, she handed them over.

“Go ahead and sit in the back with him in case he’s sick again,” Ryker said as he opened the other rear door.

Without saying a word, Sophia did as he suggested. It was only as he pulled away from the house that she spoke. “Is he going to be okay?”

Ryker knew better than to promise anything, but he found that he had to offer her some reassurance. “The hospital is where he needs to be. They’ll take good care of him there.”

He wished he could promise her everything was going to be fine with Bryson, but if what he suspected was true, there were no guarantees. And even if it was fine in the end, the road to get to that point was going to be bumpy.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Sophia tried to stop crying, but it was hard, especially now that they were on their way to the ER. This was beyond scary for her because it meant that Bryson was way sicker than she’d thought.

When he’d woken up crying that morning, it had been clear pretty quickly that he’d taken a turn for the worse through the night. Friday had been hard, seeing him so lethargic and not wanting to eat anything, still complaining about the pain. She’d done her best to keep getting fluids into him, and he’d been drinking in small amounts.

However, when he’d started vomiting around noon, she’d begun to get really worried since that meant even the little bit of liquid she managed to get into him was coming back up. And then the fever…when that had spiked, she’d started to panic.

She was sure it didn’t say much about her as a mother that it had taken Ryker to get her moving in the right direction. But there had been something calming about his presence, even with all the questions he’d asked her.

As he deftly drove her car out of New Hope to the hospital in a nearby town, Sophia was glad that she could focus on Bryson. Although seeing him so lethargic and pale, except for the weird